Pooja Taparia is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arpan. She has spearheaded the movement against Child Sexual Abuse in India and currently leads a team of over 120 passionate, dedicated & empowered individuals. Pooja started work on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) when there was no narrative on this subject in India.

Her journey addressing CSA began in September 2004 after being highly influenced by a play ‘30 Days in September’ on CSA, giving her a new vision and direction for Arpan. She felt this nuanced and multifaceted issue must be brought to the forefront. Despite being academically unrelated to the field of social development, Pooja, with a team of 2-3 people, started conducting awareness and training sessions with various stakeholder groups (parents, teachers, civil society groups, etc), in 2006. Arpan was officially registered as a Charitable Trust in March 2008.

It is Pooja’s keen passion that has led Arpan to today become India’s largest organization working on child sexual abuse. With a current operating budget of over INR 16 crore, Arpan has impacted over 3 million lives.

Pooja has led Arpan to win 6 National and 2 international awards for its outstanding contribution to the awareness and prevention of Child Sexual Abuse in India. It is Pooja’s visionary approach and the collective passion and perseverance of Arpan’s team of professionals that has amplified Arpan’s work and normalised conversations around the issue of CSA between children and adults.